Tuesday, June 29, 2010

No Holds Barred: John Perretti on Werdum-Fedor, Jiu-Jitsu, and Death of MMA Fighter Michael Kirkham

(The late Michael Kirkham, from his Facebook profile.)

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman speaks with our senior correspondent, the legendary former matchmaker John Perretti.

We spoke Monday night about the tragic breaking news reports that mixed martial arts fighter Michael Kirkham, after his first professional bout on Saturday, June 26, in Aiken, South Carolina, had died from of a brain hemorrhage Monday morning. We discussed footage of Kirkham on YouTube from an amateur fight he had, and lost, in April. John Perretti commented that Kirkham did not show the skills necessary to become a pro fighter. We also discussed the lax medical requirements for fighters in the state of South Carolina, and how this was the kind of tragedy we have been warning about as mixed martial arts becomes a less safe sport than it had been previously.

Earlier Monday we had a lengthy discussion about the submission victory by Fabricio Werdum over Fedor Emelianenko at the Strikeforce-M-1 Global mixed martial arts card Saturday, June 26, in San Jose, California. We discussed how Fedor was defeated by a move from "Jiu-Jitsu 101". We discussed the place of Fedor in mixed martial arts history, the devolution of the heavyweight division which he dominated for many years, why there should not be an immediate rematch between Fedor and Werdum, how this fight highlights the key role of grappling in mixed martial arts, the impressive performance on this card by Cung Le, why fighters like Brock Lesnar do not have a "complete toolbox", and much more.

You can play or download No Holds Barred here. You can also download No Holds Barred here. If one link does not work, please try another. The show is in MP3 format, so may take some time to download.

The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", by Ian Carpenter.

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